Tobias Klein

Most Recent Affiliation(s):

City University Hong Kong, School of Creative Media, Assistant Professor

ISEA Bio(s) Available:

ISEA2023

Prof. Tobias Klein is Associate Professor, School of Creative Media, City University, HK. Tobias Klein is an architect and interdisciplinary artist/designer. He generates a syncretism of contemporary CAD/CAM technologies with site and culturally specific design narratives, intuitive non-linear design processes, and historical cultural references. His most recent work, a fully 3D printed dress titled Incunabula was filmed by SHOWstudio London, and exhibited in the 14th Architectural Biennale (2014). The dress is in the permanent collection of the MoMu in Antwerp. At the same time, his work Inversive Embodiment, a 3D printed 4D rotation of St. Paul’s Cathedral wrapping embodied data sets in the form of Magnetic Resonance Image Data, was shown in the Science Museum in London; and a second work Soft Immortality is on show in the Museum for Science and Industry in Manchester. In parallel to the sculptural work, his continuous developing cycle of installation work titled Virtual Sunset was first shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (2011), travelled to the Industry Gallery in Washington DC (2012) and finally was exhibited at the Microwave Festival 2013 at the Hong Kong City Hall. Klein has lectured and given workshops internationally (Cambridge, UPenn, Oxford, UCL) and is the director of the Architectural Association’s Visiting School, Post-Industrial Landscapes. In 2010-12 he was an appointed Guest Professor at the TU Innsbruck Studio 3, institute for experimental architecture. His work is published in AD – Neoplasmatic Design (edited by Marcos Cruz), Digital Architecture Now (by Neil Spiller) and Drawings (by Sir Peter Cook). His current research uses advanced medical visualisation techniques to explore the human body as a new ecology of densities in which the dissolution of its anatomical boundaries allows the rethinking and recreating of it as a new physical/representational territory in constant flux and change.

ISEA2019

Tobias Klein works in the fields of architecture, art, design and interactive media installation. Trained as an Architect, his work generates a syncretism of contemporary CAD/CAM technologies with the site and culturally specific design narratives, intuitive non-linear design processes, and historical cultural references. His works are exhibited internationally at the London Science Museum, the V&A, the Venice Architectural Biennale, the Science Gallery (Melbourne), the container (Tokyo), the Bellevue Arts Museum, Museum of Moscow and Vancouver and in the permanent collection of China’s first 3D Print Museum in Shanghai, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma (USA) and the Antwerp Fashion Museum (MoMu). He lectures and publishes internationally, recently winning SIGGRAPH 2018’s Best Art Paper Award for his research on the translation from traditional to digital Craftsmanship using 3D printing and glass making. He lives with his family in Hong Kong and works as an assistant professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

ISEA2016
1. Tobias Klein works in the fields of Architecture, Art, Design and interactive Media Installation. His body of work generates a syncretism of contemporary CAD/CAM technologies with site and culturally specific design narratives, intuitive non-linear design processes, and historical cultural references. Works are crossing disciplines from sculpture, media art, installations and architecture ranging from crowd-sourced phenomena such as the work ‘virtual sunset’, the artificial environmental reactive growth of crystals in 3D printed substrates and his work on the translation of craftsmanship in the digital context through re-articulation of cultural archetypical objects within digital embodied environments generated by the use of medical datasets from Magnetic Resonance Imaging. All bear testament to the role of architecture today as more than designer, but cultural agitator and the creator-craftsman between automatic mechanization and poetic creation
2. Tobias Klein works in the fields of Architecture, Art, Design and interactive Media Installation. His work generates a syncretism of contemporary CAD/CAM technologies with site and culturally specific design narratives, intuitive non-linear design processes, and historical cultural references. Before joining the City University of Hong Kong in the role as interdisciplinary Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Media and the architectural department, he was employed at the Architectural Association (2008-2014) and the Royal College of Art, (2007-2010), in both cases in the postgraduate level.
ISEA2015

Tobias Klein works with a variety of media including reactive crystals growing in 3D printed substrates. Originally trained as an architect, his practice blends CAD/CAM technologies with site specific design narratives and intuitive non-linear design processes. His works have been shown in the V&A and the Science Museum, London and were part of festivals such as Microwave in Hong Kong. He works at the City University’s School of Creative Media in Hong Kong.